


It's Very Rare

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-09 08:44:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17998634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Chief of Police Warren decides to pull Blair's ride along





	It's Very Rare

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt vacant

It's Very Rare

by Bluewolf

"The thieves have to be wearing some kind of made-to-order gloves," Burglary Captain Roscoe told Chief of Police Warren as they discussed a series of  robberies that Roscoe's men had completely failed to resolve. "Forensics could detect the marks of fingers, but there was no sign of fingerprints."

"Latex gloves... " Warren began.

"Even with latex gloves you can see signs of fingerprints," Serena Chang said. "Yes, latex makes it very difficult to pull a print off anything except the inside of the glove, but at least you can often see the shadow of a print and it can be possible to identify a print even through latex. But I'm not even seeing that."

Warren frowned as he looked at Roscoe. "No denigration of your men," he said, "but I want to pass this case over to Major Crime."

"Ellison?" Roscoe asked, a resigned note in his voice.

Warren nodded. "The man has a gift for solving the unsolvable," he said.

"Not just Ellison," Serena said. "Sandburg, too. Together, they're a genius."

"Sandburg's not a cop," Roscoe protested. "He's a nice guy, but he's not a cop - he's just an observer."

"That doesn't make his insights worthless," Serena said before Warren could speak. "The man's an anthropologist. He's traveled all over. He reads, and understands what he reads. He's lent me one or two anthropology magazines that had articles he thought might be of use to me, and they were. His range of general knowledge is encyclopediac. He often sees links that nobody else does."

"And that's why we keep extending his ride along," Warren said. "Banks has told me how often it's been something Sandburg's said that has provided the clue to solving a crime - not just for Ellison, for everyone in Major Crime."

***

"So that's the story," Warren told Simon. "Burglary has good men and an excellent solve rate, but Ellison has a knack for breaking the unbreakable, especially when he's partnered with Sandburg.

"Incidentally, talking of Sandburg - I'm thinking of pulling his ride along."

"What? You can't!"

"A ride along is for ninety days. Sandburg has been riding with Ellison now for something over nine hundred - not counting weekends and vacation time. He's been injured more than once. But that's not why. A lot of the men and women here see him for what he's worth, but there are still some who say - rightly - that he's not a cop, and - wrongly - think that he's not worth listening to because of that.

"So what I want to do... He's too busy helping your detectives to devote enough time to working on his PhD. I've begun to think of pulling his ride along status and telling him to get his dissertation written."

Slowly, Simon nodded. "And after that, a full-time job here?"

"The offer, anyway. I'd suggest consultant-profiler - we can put him through a quick profiling course - but still partnered with Ellison. Basically, still doing what he's been doing - "

"But paid," Simon grinned.

***

Blair arrived at the PD that afternoon to find Jim buried in a pile of reports, reading through them with a resigned scowl on his face.

"Problem?" Blair asked as he dropped his backpack beside Jim's desk.

"Another case handed on to us, this time from Burglary," Jim growled. "At least this time on Warren's say-so, not the Mayor looking for 'the best' to solve some minor case involving his daughter's boyfriend's second cousin."

Blair totally failed keep his face straight. It wouldn't be the first time he had invented some far-out relationship between the Mayor and some victim of a minor crime that he insisted be given to Major Crime, but Jim had never done so before.

"So what's the problem?" he asked.

"A series of burglaries," Jim said. He pushed several reports over to Blair. "Those are Serena's Forensic reports."

Blair looked at the expression on Jim's face. "You don't like what she's saying?"

"I can't see anyone solving this," Jim said quietly, and turned his attention to the next report in the pile of his desk.

Blair looked at him with a slight frown. It was rare for Jim to sound so discouraged. He reached for the top report in the bundle Jim had given him, and began to read.

The frown deepened as he read. He finished the report and reached for the next one. When he finished he put it down, then reached for Jim's computer.

"Chief?"

"Something I read a few years ago... " He typed rapidly, hit enter, and after a minute said, "Got it. It might not be applicable, of course, but it's worth considering as an exceptionally long shot. There mightn't be any of these people in America - but I don't have the clearance to try to find out."

Jim looked over at the computer screen.

_Adermatoglyphia is the absence of ridges on the skin on the pads of the fingers and toes, as well as on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. The patterns of these ridges form whorls, arches, and loops. Because no two people have the same patterns, fingerprints have long been used as a way to identify individuals. However, people with adermatoglyphia do not have these ridges, and so they cannot be identified by their fingerprints._

"I see what you mean," he muttered. "A _very_ long shot. Let's take this in to Simon."

***

Simon listened to Blair with a slowly dropping jaw. This was exactly what Warren had been saying; that the upper echelons of the Cascade PD understood that Blair could come up with insights nobody else did.

"Hold on," he said. "I want to call in Chief Warren, Serena Chang and Captain Roscoe of Burglary to hear this."

He went out, spoke to Rhonda, and came back. "With luck they'll all be free to join us in a few minutes."

They might or might not have been free when they got the call from Rhonda, but on hearing that Blair had come up with a suggestion, all three arrived inside five minutes.

Blair repeated what he had told Simon a few minutes earlier.

"Adermatoglyphia," Blair said, and explained about people with no fingerprints. "The condition is very rare. Worldwide there are only about four families known who have the... condition, I suppose you could say, and while I don't suppose everyone in those families is... well, affected, they could be carrying a recessive gene for the condition. They lose touch with the original family, then bang, four generations on their kids have no fingerprints and you have a new family that has no idea there's a link to anyone else who's the same. In a way it's as identifying as fingerprints, except of course if one of them were to... oh, commit a murder, you wouldn't be able to identify which of them was guilty.

"However, I don't know where in the world those families live, or their names, or even how large they are - the internet gives info about the condition, but that's all. Whether someone with adermatoglyphia is here in Cascade, I don't know, and short of taking the fingerprints of everybody in Cascade I don't know how we could find out. Indeed, there could be more than four families worldwide, with the others being in countries that don't routinely fingerprint babies."

"That could certainly explain the total lack of any sign of fingerprints at the various crime scenes," Serena said. "I'd heard of people painting their fingers with silicon to cover, and so hide, their fingerprints, but not this ad...ader... aderthing. Maybe these guys came across that same article you did, Blair."

"It's certainly possible," Blair agreed. "I don't remember what I was actually looking for the first time I came across it, but it certainly wasn't 'are there people with no fingerprints'."

"All right," Warren said. "I'm giving this case back to Burglary. If Sandburg is right, there's nothing Major Crime can do to find the robbers that Burglary couldn't also do."

Jim hastily gathered together the reports he had been reading and gave them to Roscoe, who grinned ruefully. "My men weren't exactly sorry to lose this - and they won't be happy to get it back." He turned and went out.

Serena nodded. "I'm not surprised you knew something, Blair. It's helpful, but not helpful, if you know what I mean."

"It's not something I'd have expected to find in Cascade, that's for sure," Blair said. "When I first read about it, I thought of it as a curiosity, interesting without being anything I was ever likely to come across."

"It's certainly something I'll remember," Serena said, and she turned to leave.

Warren remained in his seat. "That, Sandburg, is why I'm pulling your ride along."

Blair stared at him; Jim exclaimed, "You can't! He just came up with a possible explanation - "

"Stand down, Detective," Warren said.

"Simon - "

"Just listen to the man, Jim," Simon said.

"You've been riding with Detective Ellison for roughly four years now, and from everything I've heard, coming up with insights and suggestions, not just for Ellison but for everyone else in Major Crime. I know that officially you're studying us for your PhD, but because you're devoting so much time to us - unpaid - you haven't had the time to complete that PhD.

"I want you to take the time to finish your dissertation and defend it; and then there will be the offer of a job as consultant and profiler, based in Major Crime, which I hope you'll accept. You will need a course in profiling - but your anthropological knowledge gives you a good start. I realize it's not how you possibly planned your career to go - but what you can do here..."

"Is potentially of considerable value. I understand that," Blair said. He thought for a moment. "I'm fairly well on with the dissertation - and yes, I've got enough information to complete it inside four or five weeks if I devote all my time to it.

"I admit I've been - well, delaying. I've enjoyed working with Jim - with Major Crime - but although I love anthropology there aren't really that many viable jobs in it; and there are fewer and fewer stone age culture tribes around to study. It's a way of life that is disappearing as the tribes are assimilated into 'civilized' life. So your offer is actually very welcome." He glanced at Jim, and frowned slightly at the vacant look in his friend's eyes. "Jim?"

Simon and Warren also looked at Jim when the detective failed to answer.

Blair sighed. "Jim - come back, Jim. Everything is fine."

Jim jerked and glanced around registering Warren's presence. "Uh-oh."

"Yes, Jim - uh-oh," Blair said. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"That your ride along was being pulled."

Blair sighed and glanced at Simon. "Busted?"

"Pretty well," Simon agreed.

Blair looked back at Warren. "There's just a little more we didn't tell you," he admitted, and went on to explain about Jim's senses.

"You knew?" Warren asked Simon.

"Yes," Simon replied.

"We found things using the senses, but any evidence we presented in court was always solidly backed by Forensics," Jim said.

"I see," Warren said. "And I can understand why you kept quiet about it. Who all know?"

"Just us. The other detectives in Major Crime know he has an edge, but not what it is," Simon said.

"But I can have problems, concentrating so hard on something that I... Blair's term is 'zone out'. What happened a few minutes ago - I was trying to decide how I'd manage without him. He's come up with ways for me to manage on my own, but things are always easiest when he's there."

"Right," Warren said. "Sandburg, get that dissertation finished. We can arrange for you to study profiling maybe a couple of mornings a week, working here the rest of the time. You will have to work with other departments, but they'll have to come to you; you'll be based in Major Crime. That suit you?"

Blair smiled happily. "Yes, sir," he said.

He couldn’t have asked for anything better.

 


End file.
